This method relates to jacketed bottles and methods of making same, and more particularly to the provision of a glass bottle for beverages with a jacket for protecting it from abrasion and scratches, and for containing fragments of the bottle if it should break either from outside impact or inside pressure.
The invention applies principally to non-returnable beverage bottles, but is also equally applicable to returnable bottles.
It is well known in the glass bottle art that glass bottles (and other glass products) have great strength when new and unmarred, but that this initial high strength is frequently reduced more than 50% on account of scratches on the surface that may be too small to be detected by eye. When the glass of the bottle or container has been subjected to abrasions or scratches, the strength of the bottle is so reduced that the bottle breaks more easily from internal pressure or impact. In event of the breaking of the bottle, the glass is frequently shattered, and fragments are scattered. The scattering of the sharp fragments of glass frequently occasions physical injuries.
The glass container industry has devoted very substantial efforts, first, to preserve the initial strength of the glass; and, second, to trap or contain flying fragments in event the container is broken. This has been done by many methods, such as strengthening the bottles by ion exchange, etching, annealing, steam treatment, tempering or toughening, pyrolyzing of metallic oxides, application of many types of coatings to the outer surface, both transparent and opaque, including all kinds of waxes, stearates, silicates and many types of plastics. These coatings range from a very thin film to an appreciable thickness, and the machinery required in the use and application of these methods necessitates heavy capital investment, skilled operators, and carefully controlled operations, as well as high operating expenses.